 It was the year the space shuttle made its transition from orbital flight tests to commercial operations. A new Landsat satellite is returning extremely sharp pictures of Earth and its resources. In cooperation with several other countries an infrared astronomy satellite is being prepared for its launch and the AD-1 Scissor-Wing aircraft showed what it could do at the Oshkosh Air Show. Astronauts Jack Lausma and Gordon Folk have started off on a journey that would last more than eight days in space. As part of the test program to check out space shuttle Columbia's systems, the crew started and restarted the orbital maneuvering engines, turned the orbiter toward and then away from the sun for thermal testing and successfully operated the remote manipulator arm, picking up and moving various parts of a space science payload. They also carried experiments to monitor solar flares, medical and materials processing and the effects of zero gravity on flying insects, as suggested by high school student Todd Nelson. After 384 hours and a one-day delay because of bad weather, Columbia landed at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Approximately 12 weeks later, Thomas Tom Mattingly and Henry Harzfield piloted Columbia on its fourth and final test flight. The spacecraft's nearly flawless performance marked a fitting end to the orbital flight test program, making it possible to certify the space transportation system as a fully operational carrier. On July 4th, after seven days in orbit, Columbia made a perfect landing on a concrete runway, another first. The President and Mrs. Reagan were there to watch the landing and greet the crew. On November 11th and Space Shuttle 5, the first operation will fly. Two commercial communication satellites were hauled into orbit, one for satellite business systems and one for Telesat of Canada. Their deployment was a complete success. Space Shuttle had delivered as promised. Columbia and the four astronaut crew landed back on Earth at 9.33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 16th. Another milestone event, the completion and rollout of the second Space Shuttle Orbiter took place in July. Cristened Challenger, the new orbiter is scheduled for its first mission early in 1983. Challenger traveled over land to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, where it was mounted on top of the 747 carrier aircraft and flown to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida to ready it for its first flight. Looking farther into the future, NASA has selected eight companies to prepare Space Station mission studies. The studies will contribute to the development of specific mission requirements and overall architectural options which will be incorporated in NASA studies of a shuttle-tended permanent orbiting facility. The companies are expected to identify and analyze the scientific, commercial, national security and space operational missions that could be most efficiently conducted by a Space Station. 1982 was also a busy time for unmanned spacecraft. Two satellites for Western Union were launched called West Star 4 and 5. These communications satellites relay a variety of radio-television programs as well as transmit complete editions of magazines to regional printed plants. US News and World Report, Time, People and Sports Illustrated all use West Star. Other unmanned launches included an ANNIC-4 communication satellite operated by Telesat of Canada, RCA-America's SATCOM-4 and 5, and Intelsat-5. Around the country, the various elements of the space telescope are being worked on and assembled. At the Perkin-Elmer plant in Connecticut, the 92-inch telescope mirror has been finally buffed and polished. A wide-field camera is being built and tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. These mock-ups of the space telescope's parts give an idea of its size. It's here at the Lockheed plant in Sunnyvale, California that it will be assembled. At the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, astronauts practice working around the space telescope in a tank filled with water to simulate the gravity-free space environment. The space telescope will be placed into orbit from the Shuttle Payload Bay in 1985. It's designed to be an international observatory located in space for the study of the universe and is expected to provide new advances in astronomy and physics. An infrared astronomical satellite will soon be launched from the western test range in California. It's shown here undergoing tests at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The IRAS, as it is called, is an international project that includes NASA, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The new Earth-orbiting instrument with its 68 infrared detectors will be used to witness the birth of new stars and the death of old ones. IRAS will probe through space, searching for celestial phenomena that are invisible to our eyes but glow in the infrared. Pioneers 8 and 9 launched in 1967 and 1968 and orbiting the Sun since that time passed within one and one-half million miles of each other on October 7 in space terms a close encounter. They, like the two unmanned pioneers that followed them, pioneers 10 and 11 continued to return a stream of new information about our solar system to Earth-bound scientists. The spacecraft have traveled billions of miles from Earth passing safely through rocky asteroid and radiation belts along the way. These are some of the last photographs of Mars. They were taken by the Viking 1 orbiter and processed this past spring at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. More than 50,000 photographs have been taken by the Viking spacecraft since 1976. The two Vikings were launched seven years ago. As they arrived at Mars, the lander portion of the spacecraft separated and touched down softly on the Martian surface, leaving the orbiters circling above the planet. The Viking 1 lander continues to send back valuable imaging and meteorological data every week. The fourth Earth-scanning Landsat was launched from California on July 16. Landsat 4 is designed to continuously collect accurate information on Earth's resources, information useful in land use planning, exploration, and agriculture. An onboard thematic mapper recorded these views could help urban planners better manage and monitor urban sprawl into the surrounding countryside. After completing its three-year mission, Landsat 4 is designed to be retrieved by the space shuttle. This is Medicine Bow, Wyoming, site of the dedication of two wind-powered generators on September 4. The project is a joint endeavor of NASA's Lewis Research Center, the Department of Energy, and the Bureau of Reclamation. One unit was built by the Hamilton Standard Company and is nearly 400 feet high. It's capable of producing 4 megawatts of electricity. The second unit, constructed by the Boeing Engineering and Construction Company, is powered by a rotor 300 feet in diameter and can produce 2.5 megawatts of electricity. When operating together, the pair of wind turbines will provide enough energy to meet the needs of 3,000 homes in the Rocky Mountain area. The Lewis Research Center has been working on experimental ion-electric rocket engines for more than two decades. Electric engines produce minute amounts of thrust and do it more efficiently than conventional chemical rockets. One experimental electric engine, CERT-2, has been tested for 11 years and journeyed more than a billion and a half miles through space. Ion propulsion systems are especially attractive for possible comet and asteroid rendezvous missions, exploration of the outer planets, station keeping of communication satellites and orbital platforms. The next space test of an ion rocket engine will take place in 1983. The Lewis Center has also been working on Earth applications of solar power. For example, a solar-electric-powered medical clinic has been designed and several constructed for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Built by the Solarex Corporation, they're being installed in remote villages in Guiana, Ecuador, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The medical system package includes a refrigerator, sterilizer, examination light, two-way radio and numerous interior and exterior lights all powered from the sun. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory working in conjunction with scientists from the University of Southern California are applying space-related computerized image analysis techniques to the earthly treatment of arteriosclerosis and stenosis of the arteries, diseases that affect thousands of Americans. To calculate the degree of disease present, the computer first indicates the edges of the artery with black lines. The white lines, which just appeared, are the computer's best estimate of where the walls of the artery would be if there were no disease present. Using these guidelines, statistics such as the degree of narrowing can be computed and printed out for the patient's file. These same techniques were used to enhance significant areas of the planet's Saturn for scientific study from pictures taken by the Voyager spacecraft. NASA's Aeronautical Research and Technology program continues to make contributions across a broad spectrum of aviation. Case in point, the Rotor Systems Research Aircraft, or RSRA, being flown at the AIMS Research Center. This unique flying laboratory looks like a cross between an airplane and a helicopter and can fly like both. The main objectives of the research are to flight test advanced rotor concepts to increase performance, lower noise and vibrations and improve flight control systems. The RSRA is a valuable tool for testing out new rotor concepts. The Bell XV-15 is another research aircraft that holds great promise for both military and civilian use. It can hover like a helicopter or cruise like a turboprop airplane. Once the 25-foot prop rotors are rotated forward, it can fly at speeds up to 350 miles per hour. The XV-15 flew proof-of-concept and extensive operational demonstration flights for the military in 1982, including the ones shown here for the Navy. After practicing carrier takeoffs and landings at the Navy's North Island base in San Diego, the tilt rotor went through sea trials on the USS Tripoli. The XV-15 is generating a lot of interest for use in search and rescue operations, as an economical way to supply offshore oil rigs and as an intercity transport. A wind tunnel at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland is one of the places research is being done to design highly efficient propellers for future aircraft. The unusually shaped propeller has many blades, which spin at speeds greater than those at conventional props. When applied to commercial transport aircraft, researchers believe it will result in fuel savings of as much as 30% over conventional turbofan-powered planes, while operating at similar speeds and altitudes. The Lewis Center also has an icing research tunnel to study problems associated with aircraft flying into conditions that cause ice to build on plane surfaces. The main objective is to provide for more efficient, more lightweight ice protection systems that can be applied to general aviation aircraft, helicopters, and future commercial transports. They called it salute to NASA aeronautics, and it was the theme for the 1982 Experimental Aircraft Association National Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. NASA's Langway, Lewis, and Ames Research Centers participated in the eight-day event with people and equipment. Highlighted at the world's largest annual aviation convention were NASA's research and advanced technology developments in civil, military, and general aviation. 600,000 people saw NASA pilot Tom McMurphy from the Dryden Flight Research Facility put the oblique wing AD-1 airplane through its bases. The wing AD-1 was rotated to an oblique angle of up to 60 degrees, a new ray that reduces air demand to increase speed and range without using more fuel. Visitors were treated to an endless variety of aircraft, from home-built to village-world-spotting 10,000-point-in-Oshkosh during the convention. From Orbiter, Columbia, to space science, applications, and aircraft research, this country's aeronautics and space efforts moved forward on many fronts in 1982. This special report brought to you by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.